Biochemical composition of meat from heterogeneous rabbit population reared under smallholder farms in southwestern Nigeria

The biochemical composition of meat from heterogeneous rabbits raised under smallholder units in five different locations – Iwo, Ejigbo, Ede, Osogbo, and Ife – in southwestern Nigeria was investigated in this study. Thirty adult rabbits – fifteen bucks and fifteen does were used. Animals were sacrificed and samples were taken to the laboratory for biochemical analyses. Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS) AA-6800® was used to analyze the samples. Further data processing was done with Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS, ver. 27.0) and for separation of means was used Duncan New Multiple range test. The proximate analysis of rabbit meat revealed 57.19% moisture, 20.78% crude protein, 2.02% fat, and 2.69% Ash. The analyses provided also the content (mg/kg) of calcium, sodium, magnesium, potassium, zinc and iron (essential mineral elements), and arsenic, cadmium, lead and manganese (non-essential/heavy metals). There were no significant differences (p>0.05) between the non-essential minerals and two of the essential minerals (iron and zinc) across all the locations. However, there were significant differences (p<0.05) in calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium of the rabbit meat from different locations. The content of lead (0.04 ±0.003mg/kg) in the analyzed meat samples was lower than 0.1 mg/kg that is toxic to humans, making rabbit meat under smallholder units in southwestern Nigeria safe and healthy for consumption. Keywords: rabbit meat, biochemical analysis, smallholder farms, heterogeneous rabbit